I have been fighting the weirdest problem with my boat trailer the past few years.
So the trailer is probably around 40 years old. We've been towing our little 15' boat with it since the late 80s. Maybe 90s.
We never had a problem. We were doing short trips from the house to the lake in NH. Then around 2010 I brought the boat home to MA. Here in MA, I drive a lot further with it going from home to the boat ramps in Medford or Newton. And I have no slips so every single boat ride is a drive. So for over 10 years, the trailer handled that no problem.
Within the last few years, the caps on the axles started to fall out, so I took that opportunity to replace the rear seals, clean the bearings, regrease everything, and retighten everything. The hubs are rolling perfectly now.
Here's the problem:
I keep replacing the caps with new caps, and they keep poping right out and I lose them on the road. I can't figure out why. I'm DEFINITELY not using caps that are too small. I know this because they are so tight that I've ruined about half of the new ones I bought during install, where the medal just starts peeling back and splitting. It can take an hour to get a new cap on, they're so tight. But once I get it on there, I am not exaggerating when I say I can drive ONE mile and they will back themselves out. Another 5 miles and they're gone.
This is happening on both sides. There's plenty of grease in both hubs. Yesterday I hammered them in perfectly snug, drive exactly one mile, and pulled over to check. Both had backed out partially in just a mile. I don't get it?! Nothing inside the hub (aka the retainer clip) is rubbing against the caps. They're super tight. Yet any amount of driving and they almost right away start to back out. I can't figure out how? There's no grease fittings so its not like it's over-pressurized with great. I can't figure it out!!
I even tried putting a ring of liquid nails around the ring before I hammered one tight to see if that could hold it tightly in place. It had ZERO effect.
Any ideas?
Here's a photo of what I'm dealing with. Note this is the first time the cap fell off, and it sat that way all Winter, which is why the grease looks rough. But I took the whole hub off and cleaned and regressed everything before reassembling and putting a new cap on.
So the trailer is probably around 40 years old. We've been towing our little 15' boat with it since the late 80s. Maybe 90s.
We never had a problem. We were doing short trips from the house to the lake in NH. Then around 2010 I brought the boat home to MA. Here in MA, I drive a lot further with it going from home to the boat ramps in Medford or Newton. And I have no slips so every single boat ride is a drive. So for over 10 years, the trailer handled that no problem.
Within the last few years, the caps on the axles started to fall out, so I took that opportunity to replace the rear seals, clean the bearings, regrease everything, and retighten everything. The hubs are rolling perfectly now.
Here's the problem:
I keep replacing the caps with new caps, and they keep poping right out and I lose them on the road. I can't figure out why. I'm DEFINITELY not using caps that are too small. I know this because they are so tight that I've ruined about half of the new ones I bought during install, where the medal just starts peeling back and splitting. It can take an hour to get a new cap on, they're so tight. But once I get it on there, I am not exaggerating when I say I can drive ONE mile and they will back themselves out. Another 5 miles and they're gone.
This is happening on both sides. There's plenty of grease in both hubs. Yesterday I hammered them in perfectly snug, drive exactly one mile, and pulled over to check. Both had backed out partially in just a mile. I don't get it?! Nothing inside the hub (aka the retainer clip) is rubbing against the caps. They're super tight. Yet any amount of driving and they almost right away start to back out. I can't figure out how? There's no grease fittings so its not like it's over-pressurized with great. I can't figure it out!!
I even tried putting a ring of liquid nails around the ring before I hammered one tight to see if that could hold it tightly in place. It had ZERO effect.
Any ideas?
Here's a photo of what I'm dealing with. Note this is the first time the cap fell off, and it sat that way all Winter, which is why the grease looks rough. But I took the whole hub off and cleaned and regressed everything before reassembling and putting a new cap on.
